The kithara was a professional version of the two-stringed lyre. As opposed to the simpler lyre, which was a folk-instrument, the kithara was primarily used by professional musicians, called kitharodes. The kithara's origins are likely Anatolian.[2] The barbiton was a bass version of the kithara[3] popular in the eastern Aegean and ancient Anatolia.

In the Middle Ages, cythara was also used generically for stringed instruments including lyres, but also including lute-like instruments.[4][5] The use of the name throughout the Middle Ages looked back to the original Greek kithara, and its abilities to sway people's emotions.[4]

Construction

Greek vase drawing depicting a man playing a kithara with eight strings.

The kithara had a deep, wooden sounding box composed of two resonating tables, either flat or slightly arched, connected by ribs or sides of equal width. At the top, its strings were knotted around the crossbar or yoke (zugon) or to rings threaded over the bar, or wound around pegs. The other end of the strings was secured to a tail-piece after passing over a flat bridge, or the tail-piece and bridge were combined. Most vase paintings show kitharas with seven strings, in agreement with ancient authors, but these also mention that occasionally a skillful kitharode would use more than the conventional seven strings.

It was played with a rigid plectrum held in the right hand, with elbow outstretched and palm bent inwards, while the strings with undesired notes were damped with the straightened fingers of the left hand.

Uses

The kithara was the virtuoso's instrument, generally known as requiring a great deal of skill.[6]

The kithara was played primarily to accompany dance , epic recitations, rhapsodies, odes, and lyric songs.[3] It was also played solo at the receptions, banquets, national games, and trials of skill. The music from this instrument was said to be the lyre for drinking parties and is considered an invention of Terpander. Aristotle said that these string instruments were not for educational purposes but for pleasure only.

Apollo as a kitharode

Apollo Kitharoidos. Painted plaster, Roman artwork from the Augustan period

The cithara is said to have been the invention of Apollo, the god of music.[7] Apollo is often seen playing a cithara instead of a lyre. Kitharoidos, or Citharoedus is an epithet given to Apollo, which means "lyre-singer" or "one who sings to the lyre". An Apollo Citharoedus or Apollo Citharede, is a statue or other image of Apollo with a cithara. Among the best-known examples is the Apollo Citharoedus of the Vatican Museums, a 2nd-century AD colossal marble statue by an unknown Roman sculptor.

Notes

^ abSegerman, Ephraim (April 1999). "A Short History of the Cittern". The Galpin Society Journal. 52: 78-79. doi:10.2307/842519. JSTOR842519. Cythara ... was often used as a generic term for 'plucked string instrument' by writers discussing a variety of instruments in medieval and Renaissance times ... [a musician using the word about his personal instrument would be] making a claim that his instrument was the one that had the magic to magically manipulate the listener's emotional states as the original kithara (with a similar large plectrum) had a reputation of doing to the ancient Greeks.

^Francesco Ciabattoni. "Dante's Journey to Polyphony". There is evidence of citharae shaped like a lute, that is with a neck and an elongated body, even before the 12th century: the Golden Psalter of St Gall depicts King David wielding an instrument ... this instrument resembles a lute more than a cythara [lyre] ... Further evidence appears in the Stuttgart Psalter ... several images of an instrument ... in the text, next to all these miniatures, the instrument is called a cythara ...

External links

"Ensemble Kérylos". a music group directed by scholar Annie Bélis, dedicated to the recreation of ancient Greek and Roman music and playing instruments rebuilt on archaeological reference. In its recording D'Euripide aux premiers chretiens : musique de l'antiquité grecque et romaine, the band plays both Roman and Greek Kitharas. Pictures of its instruments can be seen on their website: Ensemble Kérylos. "Photos"..